New Delhi: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has stirred controversy with a social media put up that targets the nation’s high forms. He claimed that greater than half of Pakistan’s most senior civil servants have bought property overseas utilizing cash moved overseas, typically throughout their time in highly effective authorities positions.
In response to him, these actual property investments weren’t made in conventional locations like the US or the UK. As a substitute, many officers purchased land in Portugal, a comparatively small European nation.
He alleged {that a} rising quantity are actually working to safe Portuguese citizenship, with some having already obtained it.
Authorities information point out that roughly 3,000 Pakistanis acquired Portuguese citizenship between 2016 and 2024.
Asif stated many of those people served in high-ranking posts and “made billions” throughout their tenure, solely to plan for a “peaceable retired life” overseas.
Providing one instance, the minister pointed to a senior officer, reportedly near former Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, who allegedly amassed round 4 billion Pakistani rupees in “salami” (money presents) throughout his daughters’ weddings. That officer, Asif stated, is now comfortably settled abroad.
In a jab on the political class, the minister stated that not like bureaucrats, politicians “don’t personal plots or maintain overseas citizenship” and solely get “leftovers” as a result of they need to contest elections, which restrict their skill to get pleasure from such privileges.